Greene County-Greeneville EMS is ordering a new ambulance through a new federal grant, and has recently added new equipment to its operations.
EMS Director T.J. Manis said that the agency is taking advantage of a $305,461 federal grant to purchase a new fully-outfitted ambulance, although the grant will not completely cover the cost of the purchase.
A new ambulance costs about $320,000 currently, therefore Manis said that EMS will cover the remaining $15,000 out of its budget for the fiscal year. It will be several months before EMS takes possession of the new vehicle.
In addition to a new ambulance being on the way, EMS has made several equipment upgrades in the past couple months through a $500,000 funding allocation by the County Commission.
That includes 8 new transport ventilators for a total cost of $132,000. Greene County-Greeneville EMS is one of the first agencies in the state to have the ventilators installed on advanced EMT ambulances.
T.J. Manis
EMS also upgraded its radios, purchasing 30 Motorola radios at a total cost of $241,443. The new radios are able to connect to Wi-Fi networks and LTE through AT&T’s FirstNet, which ensures EMS personnel can communicate even when inside buildings with thick walls or in lower levels of structures where radio communication was previously difficult or impossible.
EMS has also purchased two LIFEPAK 15 heart monitors, so now every ambulance on the road in Greene County now has a heart monitor that is fully capable of monitoring vitals and automatically conducting defibrillation if needed.
Two new “stair chairs” for transporting patients up and down stairwells were also purchased, in addition to ordering a new Ford F-150 body transport vehicle.
Although the County Commission made a capital investment in EMS to improve the service, Greene County-Greeneville EMS remains a self-sufficient service funded by customer fees.
Manis said the investment in EMS was welcome, especially as Greene County’s population continues to grow.
Manis said that on average EMS was responding to over 1,400 calls for service per month, at an average rate of about 50 to 60 calls per day. Manis said that it takes on average about 12 minutes and 47 seconds for an ambulance to respond to a scene in Greene County. EMS usually spends about 19 minutes on scene, which Manis said he would like to see decrease by a few minutes.
While call volume is increasing, Manis said that patient transport times at Greeneville Community Hospital had improved. He noted the average ambulance was only having to wait at Greeneville Community Hospital for about 12 minutes when unloading a patient. For its part, Greeneville Community Hospital saw on average about 88 patients come through its emergency department per day in July, including those delivered by EMS.
Manis said that the two EMS ambulances stationed in Greeneville in addition to the one stationed in Tusculum make up about 49% of the agency’s call volume. He said that EMS officials are working to see what adjustments could be made to better distribute call volume, while still ensuring all of Greene County is served adequately.
